Low turnout worries 1A backers

Just about 12,000 voters have sent in ballots in the Nov. 5 election — a low number that has backers of Question 1A worried.

Gilbert ‘Bo’ Ortiz

“We need a bigger turnout than that,” said Nick Gradisar, co-chairman of the Puebloans Improving Our Community group that is backing Question 1A. “Hopefully people have just been waiting to cast their ballots and we’ll see a surge in this last week.”

Question 1A would create a countywide, half-cent sales tax to support six popular nonprofit organizations. It would create about $7 million a year that would be shared by Pueblo Animal Services, Pueblo Zoo, Colorado State Fair, Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo, Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center, and the Nature and Raptor Center.

City Council and the Pueblo County commissioners want Question 1A to pass because it would relieve them of having to provide millions each year in budget support.

The organizations themselves want out of the annual drama of waiting to see what the city and county are willing or able to contribute.

County Clerk Gilbert “Bo” Ortiz said 95,000 mail ballots were sent out to Pueblo County voters for the Nov. 5 election.

According to ballot statistics from the Secretary of State’s Office, about 6,000 of the local votes cast came from Democrats, 3,400 came from Republicans and 2,400 from unaffiliated.

Gradisar said a community survey earlier this year showed that most of the voters willing to support a tax increase to benefit the Question 1A organizations were Democrats and unaffiliated voters.

“We also have Republican supporters but I believe we need a strong voter turnout to win this election,” he said. “I’m encouraging people take time to fill out that mail ballot and return it.”

Ortiz said about 4,000 ballots have been returned because of wrong addresses or were “undeliverable” for other reasons. Given the 95,000 ballots mailed, he said that return for undeliverables was acceptable.

Ortiz said he was aware about other counties having a much higher return rate for undeliverable ballots, such as El Paso County, but said his office has been using the U.S. Postal Service’s national address change database to keep the county voter addresses as current as possible.